L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D e a r R e a d e r s , M a r c h , t h e third month of the year has 31 d a y s a n d i s short for Martius mensis, " t h e m o n t h o f M a r s . " I n Roman mythology, Mars was the god of war and agricul- ture. Nerio, a minor Roman goddess was his wife. Jupiter (Zeus), the supreme Roman god of the skies, rain, and weather was his father. Juno (Hera), goddess of marriage and daughter of Saturn, was his mother. *** M a r c h — M a r z o , h a s many dates with an "Italian Connection:" Julius Caesar, 100-44 BC, the greatest of all Cae- sars, roman statesman and general, it's said, laughed at a s o o t h s a y e r ' s w a r n i n g t o "beware the Ides of March." A s u c c e s s f u l p l o t f o r h i s assassination took place on March 15th, 44BC, done by the hand of his trusted adop- tive son and is considered the most famous of classical betrayals. D.H. Lawrence, 1885- 1930, the controversial Eng- lish novelist and poet, author of Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love, died of t u b e r c u l o s i s i n I t a l y , o n March 2, 1930. T h e S t a r - S p a n g l e d Banner officially became America's National Anthem on March 3, 1931. Italian- Americans stood proudly to sing it, especially in 1936 while watching newly hired rookie Joe DiMaggio playing for the New York Yankees at their namesake stadium. Antonio Meucci, born in Florence, applied for a patent for what was to be the telephone in 1871. Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent in 1876 and Edison's carbon refinement is dated 1877. Italians in Italy and Italian-Americans felt they were "robbed," after Bell pre- vailed in American Supreme Cour t l itigation ( because Meucci's provisional patent expired in 1873) therefore they will not be celebrating B e l l ' s M a r c h 4 b i r t h d a y anniversary. Pier Paolo Pasolini, I t a l i a n f i l m d i r e c t o r ( D e c a m e r o n , A r a b i a n Nights), poet, and novelist (Ragazzi di Vita), was born o n M a r c h 5 , 1 9 2 2 , i n Bologna. Police arrested a s e v e n t e e n - y e a r - o l d m a l e a f t e r P a s o l i n i w a s f o u n d murdered on the outskirts of Rome in 1975. Michelangelo Buonar- roti, born on March 6, 1475, near Florence, was an artist, sculptor, architect, and poet. He painted The Creation of Man, and some of the most beautiful paintings in the world, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His statues of David and Moses are masterpieces in marble and his dome of St. Peter's established him as one of Italy's foremost architects. He died in 1564, and was almost ninety years old, an exceptional age for the time. Anna Magnani, interna- tionally celebrated Italian film star, was on born March 7, 1908, to moderately pros- perous Italian immigrants in Alexandria, Egypt, but since her early characterizations had made her the emotional symbol of Italian peasantry and proletariat, her middle- class beginnings were de- emphasized. Divorced from Italian film director Goffredo Alessandrini in 1943, she worked as a bit actress in films and on stage in order to pay the enormous medical expenses for her polio-strick- en son Luca, until her big b r e a k i n 1 9 4 6 , w h e n s h e burst upon American audi- ences as the pregnant fiancée of an Italian resistance leader in Open City, directed by Roberto Rossellini. In 1955, she won an Academy Award for her first Hollywood por- t r a y a l i n T e n n e s s e e Williams's The Rose Tattoo. Open City, the movie that brought her fame and for- tune, also brought her heart- break as the movie brought Rossellini to the attention of Hollywood actress Ingrid Bergman and eventually pre- cipitated an international scandal, which catapulted the Sicilian island of Stromboli into the spotlight, along with R o s s e l l i n i a n d t h e t w o actresses in his life. I n t e r n a t i o n a l Advancing our Legacy: Italian Community Services CASA FUGAZI If you know of any senior of Italian descent in San Francisco needing assistance, please contact: ItalianCS.org | (415) 362-6423 | info@italiancs.com Italian Community Services continues to assist Bay Area Italian-American seniors and their families navigate and manage the resources needed to live healthy, independent and productive lives. Since Shelter-in-Place began in San Francisco, Italian Community Services has delivered over 240 meals, over 900 care packages and made over 2000 phone wellness checks for our seniors. Women's Day honors the world's women. Women's Day was first proclaimed on March 8, 1910, to commemo- rate a protest by female gar- ment workers in New York City in 1857, and is a holiday born out of women's strug- g l e s f o r s u f f r a g e , d e c e n t w o r k i n g c o n d i t i o n s , a n d other human rights. Many Italian females entered the garment industry as low-paid workers and were exploited by factory owners in the East- ern states. "We want bread and roses, too" was a sign carried in 1912 by young Ital- ian-American women strik- ing a textile mill in Lawrence, M a s s a c h u s e t t s . T h e 1 9 1 2 strike resulted in national sympathy for the exploited Italian workers in America. T h e p h r a s e " B r e a d a n d Roses" became the title of a p o e m w r i t t e n a b o u t t h e s t r i k e , a n d A . G i o v a n i t t i wrote an Italian song, Pane e R o s e , w h i c h w a s p o p u l a r with the Italian dressmakers of the International Ladies Garment Union. Lorenzo Da Ponte, born in March 1749. The esteemed librettist who provided verses to the operatic scores of such great composers as Mozart and Salieri also became the first and foremost purveyor of Italian culture in the Unit- ed States. Arriving here in 1805, Da Ponte taught Italian language and literature at several American colleges, including Columbia Universi- ty which he had a hand in founding. He was also largely responsible for introducing opera to this country, via his popular librettos for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Don G i o v a n n i , a n d C o s ì f a n Tutte.

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